Originally posted by The Home Care Club LLC:
I assume your looking to construct a handi-cap shower.
We do these all the time.
Go to the web page
http://www.schluter.com/4625.aspx It will tell you how to construct a shower with a flush floor. Our company has put in many of these systems and all came out real nice.
Its a very easy system to work with if you take your time. Do not cut corners or you will end up with leaks.
We oftentimes sink the floor down into the flooring structure. We have to sister the floor joists to allow us to notch the floor joists out. We cut out three inches of beam to lower the shower pan and have it end up the same height as the main floor. You must remember a few things. If the shower is small you will need to remove the entire sub-floor in the bathroom and pitch the floor slightly towards the shower door opening. If not water will get out under the shower door area and run all over the floor of the bathroom. A small saddle curb such as you would place near a door entrance will help prevent this but not stop in entirely.
Be sure to direct the shower head away from the door opening. This will go a long way in preventing the water from getting under the door.
When we counter sink the shower into the floor area we create a mud floor rather then use the shower tray system. Its a little more work but allows us to pitch the floor to the current drain rather then have it placed into the middle of the floor as sometimes this will not work because of current framing layout.
When we construct a mud pan we use the Schluter Kirdi drain and Kirdi mat. We do place tar paper on sub floor first and then place expanded metal on top of that for our base cement. Another tip is to use pre-mixed mud. While you can always mix your own mud with Portland cement and clean sand. the pre-mix stuff is much better and is much better to work with. Once cement is dry then cover the cement with Kirdi mat and follow directions. On our walls we use Dens-Armor sheetrock. Then cover it with the Kirdi Mat as well. Never will leak and is a whole lot easier then using the cement board.
